1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of appliances and, more particularly, to a cooking appliance including an electronic control unit which establishes operational parameters of the appliance based, at least in part, on an available supply voltage.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A mains supply voltage can vary greatly from location to location. A typical household supply for an oven or range is 240 VAC (Volts Alternating Current), but can vary as much as ±20 VAC. Moreover, in many commercial locations, for example, department stores, multi-family dwellings and in several metropolitan areas, the mains supply voltage for an appliance is 208 VAC.
There is a noticeable difference in cooking results when using a 208 VAC supply voltage as compared to a 240 VAC supply voltage. Since the 208 VAC supply cannot deliver the same power to an electric heating element as the 240 VAC supply, an appliance that uses pre-programmed duty cycles and cycle times for operating the electric heating element will have different results when connected to a supply voltage other than the rated voltage for the appliance. However, these problems aside, the benefits of this type of pre-programmed operation cannot be ignored, particularly since pre-programmed cooking operations provide the consumer with a great deal of flexibility in performing various cooking operations.
The overall performance of an appliance including pre-programmed cooking operations is greatly enhanced over other standard appliances. Varying the duty cycle and cycle times of the electric heating element enables the appliance to efficiently maintain oven cavity temperatures while, at the same time, reduces the amount of energy consumed by the appliance. Moreover, by including pre-set operations, favorites and other such features, the consumer is able to fully exploit the many advantages of the modern cooking appliance. Therefore, customizing the duty cycles and cycle times for the electric heating element based on supply voltage will result in more efficient and consistent results when performing various cooking operations, such as broiling, baking and convection cooking. In this manner, the appliance becomes more desirable to consumers.
Based on the above, there exists a need in the art for a cooking appliance that includes a control that can provide customized performance for each supply voltage. More specifically, there exists a need for an appliance control that can operate the appliance according to a first control algorithm when a first supply voltage is available and according to a second control algorithm when a different supply voltage is present.